Seeing as it’s the new year I felt like sharing a few bits of inspiration that have been passed along my way these last few weeks…

Happy New Year to you all…

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? – Mary Oliver

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a poem written by Rey Casas from Zavala Elementary School in Austin, TX

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an Excerpt from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche’s New Book:

“According to the wisdom tradition of Bon, by nature the mind is open and clear. This is who we are, fundamentally. Openness is the source of our being, and in openness we are connected to all of life. What obscures us from recognizing this source is similar to the way clouds obscure the sun. The sun is always shining, but from our vantage point – namely, our identification with our problems – we don’t recognize the radiance. We are simply more familiar with identifying and dwelling on problems, and we’re used to solving them with our conceptual mind. But it is through nonconceptual awareness that we are able to directly experience the mind’s openness.”

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Next Time

Next time what I’d do is look at
the earth before saying anything. I’d stop
just before going into a house
and be an emperor for a minute
and listen better to the wind
or to the air being still.

When anyone talked to me, whether
blame or praise or just passing time,
I’d watch the face, how the mouth
has to work, and see any strain, any
sign of what lifted the voice.

And for all, I’d know more — the earth
bracing itself and soaring, the air
finding every leaf and feather over
forest and water, and for every person
the body glowing inside the clothes
like a light.